this is how a heart breaks
by starlight.moon.princess
Summary: To the rest of the world, they were the perfect Golden Couple. To Pansy, they were nothing more than heartbreakers of the worst kind. / Draco, Harry, Pansy and the many ways to break a heart. DracoHarry


They were the so-called 'Golden Couple.' They were the perfect symbol of the end of a devastating war, the darlings of the media for their heart-wrenching story of forbidden love.

Everywhere she turned, it was as though they were taunting her. Their faces were on the headlines of every newspaper in wizarding Britain, every storefront people frequented. After all, they were capable of greater compassion than anyone could believe possible – there was no other way that two mortal enemies could have fallen in love.

Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.

The perfect relationship.

As far as Pansy was concerned, however, they were fucking _heartless_. There was no other explanation for them to do what they had done.

After the end of the war, once all was said and done, everyone had expected Saint Potter to marry the Weasley and Draco to marry her. They would each live their own lives, have children, and then relive their childhood animosity through their heirs.

At least, that was what they should have done.

Instead, they had gone and done the unthinkable, and started dating _each other_. They were madly in love, they told the tabloids. They had been unable to express it because of what was expected of them, but now that they were free, there was nothing left to stop them from being together.

The public had lapped it up like the pathetic dogs they were. They had a real-life Romeo and Juliet story unfolding in front of them, and this one seemed destined to have a happy ending. Why would anyone care about the people their darlings had left behind?

Oh how the mighty had fallen. There was only one other person in the world who understood her pain.

She had never thought that she would ever have anything in common with the littlest Weaslette. She was the only one who would know what it was like to be discarded like last week's trash by the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with. She had bumped into the little blood traitor a few days after the relationship was made public, and her devastation had been obvious.

And to add salt to their wounds, they both knew that no one else could see how much they hurt. Harry and Draco's relationship was a fairytale come to life. If they said a word against the two of them, they were going to be the ones lambasted by the press.

It was enough to ruin anyone's peace of mind.

When Draco had told her that there was someone else in his life, she had been devastated.

Contrary to popular belief, she really did love Draco. His money and name didn't hurt, but she would have married him even if he didn't have them. She was ready to marry him after the war, when the Ministry was threatening to take away everything he owned. The fact that Draco hadn't loved her in return had shattered her heart into a million tiny pieces.

But she had promised herself that she would accept it. She'd sworn not to blame the woman who would be Draco's wife. After all, it wasn't her fault that Draco hadn't loved Pansy.

And then she had seen the papers. Harry Potter. Draco had abandoned her for Harry bloody Potter, thrown her aside like a piece of trash for the boy who had made his life hell, who had nearly killed him.

The fact that Draco hadn't loved her had devastated her, but the fact that he preferred his almost-killer to her? That had crushed her. It was like Draco had stomped all over the broken pieces of her heart to make sure they would never mend.

Draco had always been a bit insensitive, but he had never been cruel. And to her, that was exactly what his relationship with Potter was – the ultimate cruelty.

She had thought it was the pinnacle of Draco's thoughtlessness. That was, until the invitation arrived in her mail.

He'd gone and invited her to his _engagement party_.

She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. What had happened to the boy she loved? Had he really changed that much that he actually thought she would _want_ to come and watch the love of her life promise himself to someone else – to Potter?

But her reputation as a pureblood socialite demanded she go. So she would. She'd go, and smile at Draco and Potter, and hug them and congratulate them.

And all the while, she'd pretend that her heart wasn't shattering into tiny fragments all over again.

There were a million ways to break a heart, but she just _knew_ that this was the most painful.

After all, seeing the person you loved happily in love with someone else, someone you had hated for what seemed like your entire life?

That was how a heart truly broke.


End file.
